This Kite swooped in close to the boat dock that I was sitting on. I think he was after a bug but missed.
I don’t get many opportunities to photograph these guys pretty close. They are usually high overhead.
Any
Canon R7, Sigma 150-600 C
ISO 640, f6.3, 1/2000s, hand held
Woah, what a fly-by. Great catch. Not that it was totally luck. I love the ragged primaries and the eye contact. They have such interesting color patterns. The clear background is nice to make it stand out, but ho hum. What can you do? To get one this low is a rare thing as you say so a winner!
ETA - So were you photographing other birds or something entirely different and how did you change your settings if you had to? Do you just flip and fly or are there custom modes you dial in?
Hey, Allen. Really nice catch of this Kite. These rascals are fast and agile, and difficult to get in the crosshairs. Looks like the R7 pulled this off pretty well? Did you have Animal Detection turned on, and did it work as described? Were you using mechanical or electronic shutter? Well done.
@Kris_Smith @terryb
Thanks for the comments!
Kris, I always have my settings dialed in for flight while waiting at the dock so didn’t have to change anything. I just dial in other changes on the fly for subjects like mallard with chicks or a muskrat. No custom settings for R7 as of yet.
Terry, this was taken with animal eye detection on and the full frame selected for autofocus. It did fine on this shot but my keeper rate due to sharp focus is below 50% on small fast birds in flight like green herons and this kite. It did fine on an incoming great blue heron but they are big and slow. Used mechanical shutter. I’ll keep testing the R7.
And it even gave you a great head turn. A wonderful flight shot of this bird, Allen.
Hi Allen! Great shot of the kite! I like how it’s watching you. Nice detail too. The clear blue sky made for a nice background. Well done!
Allen, I love how he gave you the look as he passed by. It reminds me of when I was in the Army and we all had to turn to look at the general as we “passed in review”. I’m regressing here. I do like the look he gave you.
I gave up on the R7. I ordered the R5 and it should be arriving here today. Lots more money, but I hopefully will not look back and regret. The 45 megapixels should make up for it being full frame. I can set it to 1.6 crop factor, but I would rather have the loose frame for moving objects and crop in LR. I did find a pretty neat YouTube video for setting it up for birds in flight. It probably would work for the R7 as I think the menus are pretty much the same. Canon R5 Set Up - Birds and Birds in Flight an Update - YouTube
@Shirley_Freeman
Shirley,
Thanks for the comment and link. I think the R5 may be a better way to go anyway. May look into it myself later on. I have a 400mm DO II and 2x extender I could try on it.
Thanks Allen. Just arrived so now the learning curve!
